Who needs ski school?

Learning to ski requires expert tuition, so what sort of idiot tries to teach their kids themselves? That’s me – and it’s easier than you think

Teaching your children how to ski must be easy. Right? I said right..! (Tetra images RF)

D
on’t do it,” said the travel agent. “Don’t do it,” said our ski-fiend
friends. “Really, don’t do it,” said this newspaper’s skiing editor.
Apparently, only a complete fool would try to teach their kids to ski. It
requires expert tuition, and thinking you can do it yourself isn’t just
daft, it’s irresponsible. At best, you’ll all die; at worst, they’ll hate
skiing for the rest of their lives, and hate you even more, and your wife
will say “I told you so” for ever and ever.

I decided to do it anyway. First, because ski school is expensive, and I have
a conscientious objection to shelling out money I don’t have to. Second,
because I’ve heard no end of horror stories about kids having a miserable
time in ski school, tearfully unable to master the basics under hectoring
tutors, and I wasn’t having Molly, 8, and Conor, 6, go through